<<
I like the looks of that chip - it looks to be available locally and is
only 25$ or so in single quantitys. I found a wand at a surplus place and
it is only 25$ or so. I feel that with a basic Stamp and a weekend or two I
could build a wedge for under 100$ and still have bragging rights. The next
step would be interface a LCD Module and a some eeprom for scan storage and
make it portable so we can walk around and scan the books on the shelves
then dump it back to the PC. >>

Last I checked, comercial taiwanese units were about $100!
The one I saw came with the wand and an interface to the PC keyboard.